Packers Projected Depth Chart, Post-2017 NFL Draft Edition

The Green Bay Packers’ 2017 draft class is set, and the team’s first set of undrafted free agent signings have been widely reported by this point. With the 90-man roster finally nearing 90 players, we at Acme Packing Company have worked up a depth chart for the team as we see it shaping up for the offseason workouts, including OTAs and Minicamp.

In this exercise, we are setting up a “first-team/second-team” type of depth chart, in which we identify entire units rather than name the next player up at each position. They are different exercises and ultimately illustrate different ways of looking at the roster.

This approach is perhaps best illustrated by looking at the offensive line. While Jason Spriggs may be the first man off the bench if either starting tackle goes down, he can only occupy one spot on our second-team line, and so we put him at left tackle with Kyle Murphy on the right side. The same goes for Don Barclay at guard behind Lane Taylor or Jahri Evans, and so on.

Note that in all cases, players in bold are rookie draft picks, while bold and italic indicates rookie free agents.

Here’s how we set up the depth chart on offense:

Much of this is pretty straightforward. The offensive line shakes out pretty easily as far as the second-team goes, with Spriggs and Murphy taking the tackle spots. The receivers were a bit tougher to define, but we feel that currently Jeff Janis would occupy the slot, as he has run a number of routes from there in previous preseasons. Of course, the Packers are likely to use any of their receivers, tight ends, and even Ty Montgomery in the slot, which makes that a tough assignment.

On the third team, Yancey seems to have the perfect body type for the Packers’ split end - good height with some thickness and strength that calls to mind James Jones. That suggests that Malachi Dupre would line up at flanker, which would suit him better since his scouting reports suggest that he struggles against press coverage. Getting him off the line of scrimmage just a bit should help with that.

The defense is a bit of a tougher nut to crack, however. For one thing, players on defense tend to align in much more varied roles and locations than offensive players do. Morgan Burnett can be found manning the strong safety, slot corner, and inside linebacker positions on any given snap, while Clay Matthews can be found at inside or outside linebacker.

Here, I tried to project two sets of alignments - one being a 3-man line and one being a five-man secondary when the Packers line up in their modern base formation, the 2-4-5 nickel. This reflects how those two units would likely set up on a first unit/second unit basis. Again, note that this does not reflect how the players will be used particularly well, as Matthews and Burnett would likely play inside linebacker at times, with Vince Biegel and either Kentrell Brice or Josh Jones being their most likely replacements, respectively.

The secondary was the toughest thing to project, however. Right now, when the team lines up with five DBs, we believe that Kevin King will be one of the top two boundary cornerbacks, with Damarious Randall as the primary option in the slot. Once again, Burnett or Jones could be options there if the Packers decide to go with a “big nickel” with three safeties instead of three corners, and in that case it would probably be Randall who mans the outside opposite House rather than King.

One other note: we did not currently include Demetri Goodson on the depth chart due to the torn knee ligaments he suffered during the 2016 season.

On special teams, the roles are easy to define for the most part. Montgomery and Janis took the most kickoff returns last season, but with #88 starting at running back we’re betting that he gets a break in that department in favor of Janis or Trevor Davis. On punts, Davis had the most returns by a player not named Micah Hyde, but Cobb is still the most proven veteran option and he took a handful of returns late in the season. Among the rookies, only UDFA Montay Crockett has any notable return experience in college, but his 4.39 40-yard dash and 6.82 3-cone give him some intriguing athletic qualities for those spots.